The game of chess is thought to be the oldest and most universal game on earth. It probably originated during the time of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed, around 612 A.D. There are many reasons for the longevity and universality of the game. Chess, as a game has a great deal of educational value. It originated as a war game. It was literally used by early Muslims to teach war strategies. Military people could anddid use the chess set pieces to represent soldiers and move them around to explore tactics. European kings did the same thing.
Chess set pieces during the time of Mohammed and his early caliphs looked a bit different than modern ones. There are two reasons for this. Social strategies were different. Knights, for example, didn’t exist at the time until medieval times. A more important reason is simply that Islamic religious leaders objected to the realism of the figurines used as chess set pieces. The concern was that people could begin worshiping them as idols.
David Shenk, in his book The Immortal Game, shows a picture on page 33, of some ceramic chess set pieces from around 700 A.D. The chess set pieces are differentiated from one another, so that the game could still be played, but the artisitic style is so stylized that one not familiar with the game could’t identify their real-world counterparts.
